


make you feel (at ease)

by keihtkogane



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Accidental Baby Acquisition, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fluff and Angst, Insecure Lance (Voltron), Keith (Voltron) is Bad at Feelings, Keith and Shiro are Adoptive Siblings, Kind of like an alternate s3, Lance (Voltron) is a Mess, M/M, Misunderstandings, Pining, Pining Keith (Voltron), Post-Season/Series 02, There was no lion switching, They know Lotor exists at this point, kind of, mild depictions of violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-02
Updated: 2018-01-08
Packaged: 2019-01-28 05:18:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12599088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/keihtkogane/pseuds/keihtkogane
Summary: Somehow, Lance ends up flying an alien baby back to the castle in Blue after her home planet explodes.Somehow, said baby decides she only likes Lance and Keith.Somehow, this ends up being ok.OR: Lance and Keith accidentally become a couple, defeat Lotor, and adopt a baby. It would've been a lot easier for everyone if that was the exact order in which those events occurred.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is purely self-indulgent and most likely a complete mess. Nevertheless, I'm excited to finally be posting the first chapter and I hope you guys like it!
> 
> This chapter is just a bit of set up. The baby will appear within the next few chapters :)
> 
> Also, just so you know, this is a canon divergence fic. It's mainly post-season 2, with some season 3 elements (such as Lotor) thrown in. So think of it as post-season two, but where season three is time-wise based on how long they've been forming Voltron :) I hope that makes sense! 
> 
> Lastly, I want to give a _huge_ shoutout to Miranda and Keith, who both beta'd this for me!  <3

Keith wakes up feeling like he hasn’t slept at all. This in itself isn’t unusual, but the thundering  _ bang bang bang  _ coming from his door is. Keith groans and grumbles as he drags himself out of bed and stumbles blearily over to the door. He quickly unlocks it with the panel on the right and the door opens to reveal an annoyed--and, judging by the bags under his eyes, exhausted--Shiro.

 

“You’re up?” Keith asks, confused. He’s  _ always  _ the first one up and out of bed, with the occasional exception of Pidge (spending a sleepless night working on something) or Allura (getting a head start on the day’s schedule). But Shiro-- Shiro’s usually third. Right behind Allura, who usually wakes sometime after Keith, and before Coran, Hunk, and Lance, who all tend to arrive at the same time like they have some kind of pre-breakfast meeting place.

 

“You’re not?” Shiro tilts his head in confusion. 

 

“No…?” 

 

“You missed breakfast,” Shiro says, eyeing Keith with concern. 

 

“Oh,” Keith internally winces, knowing that his protective older brother is about to make an appearance.

 

“You never miss breakfast unless you’re already training,” Shiro looks him over in concern. “What’s going on?”

 

“Nothing,” Keith responds too quickly.

 

“Keith,” Shiro sighs. “What’s going on?”

 

“ _ Shiro,”  _ Keith parrots back with a little more bite than the situation probably calls for, “Nothing’s going on.”

 

“You’re lying to me,” Shiro crosses his arms and narrows his eyes. “You know I can tell when you’re lying, Keith.”

 

Keith sighs and childishly bangs his head twice on the wall next to the door in frustration, “I just haven’t been sleeping well, ok?”

 

Shiro stares at him and then sighs before turning to look at Pidge, who is coming down the hall towards them. “Fine.”

 

Pidge joins them at Keith’s door then, cutting Shiro’s imminent lecture short, and Keith silently makes a promise to find her some cool new tech junk at whichever planet they land on next.

 

“What’s goin’ on?” Pidge asks, fiddling with some kind of tablet in her hands.

 

“Nothing,” Keith says. “I was just about to grab a snack. You already ate?” He asks Pidge while stalking past Shiro still lingering in the doorway.

 

“Yeah,” Pidge responds, “But I’ll hang out in there with you for a while. I’m just waiting on this software I made to install itself.”

 

“Cool,” Keith glances back at Shiro, who gives him a frustrated look that Keith recognizes from years of him being Keith’s guardian. Keith gives him a mock salute and smirk designed to further annoy him and continues down the hall towards the dining room, while Pidge rambles about her newest updates to the outdated Altean tablet.

 

When they arrive at the dining room, they find Lance and Hunk seated at the table and engaged in some sort of discussion about movies. Lance, having heard the door open, turns, barely spares a glance for Keith, and yells at Pidge.

 

“Pidge! My best friend, coolest dude, homeslice, tech guru--”

 

“Get to the point, Lance,” Pidge sighs, but Keith can see the fond smile she’s trying to hide with an eyeroll.

 

“Which is better: Star Wars or Star Trek?” Lance asks, practically vibrating in his seat. Keith wonders if Hunk has found some kind of space coffee and forgot to inform Keith, or if Lance is just that hyped about the conversation.

 

“Star Trek,” Pidge responds without hesitation. Lance’s mouth drops open and he lets out an almost inhuman shriek.

 

“I cannot _ believe! _ Pidge! You were supposed to be on  _ my _ side!”

 

“Sorry,” Pidge takes a seat next to Hunk and diagonal from Lance, who is seated at the other side of the table. “I only speak the truth.”

 

Lance makes another strangled, garbling kind of noise and turns to Keith in desperation. “Keith! My man! You agree with me, right?”

 

Keith huffs and turns his head to the right to avoid looking at Lance, selfishly afraid that Lance will be able to read on his face that Keith, in fact,  _ does  _ agree with him, which will end with Lance never leaving it alone. “Uh,” Keith fidgets. “I think Star Trek’s better.”

 

“Abominations! All of you!” Lance huffs, crosses his arms, and purses his lips. “If Allura and Coran had seen both series, somehow I can  _ guarantee  _ they’d agree with me. You know why?” Lance asks, pausing for dramatic effect. “Because  _ they  _ are not heathens!”

 

Keith scoffs again and finally heads to the table in order to--reluctantly, of course--sit next to Lance, “No way they’d agree with you.”

 

“Um,  _ yes,  _ the Princess would definitely agree with me.”

 

Keith just rolls his eyes and turns to Hunk, “I’m assuming you already asked Shiro?” At Hunk’s confirming nod he continues, “What’d he say?”

 

Lance glares at nothing in particular while Hunk smirks, “He didn’t. Claimed that they were both his favorite series and refused to pick one.”

 

“Which is  _ basically _ him saying Star Wars is better,” Lance huffs.

 

“In what universe?!” Pidge shouts, now invested in the argument. 

 

“Whichever one we’re in right now!” Lance yells indignantly back.

 

Keith, against his own logic, finds himself getting invested in the argument too and resigns himself to a morning without food as he defends Pidge and Hunk. Keith gets a weird kind of joy out of arguing with Lance, which he will  _ never ever  _ tell anyone  _ ever _ , and secretly delights in the way Lance gets progressively louder when Keith lists all the bad things about Star Wars (things that are all  _ lies  _ because Star Wars is the best and Keith is dying a little on the inside at having to pretend he hates it). 

 

Ten minutes into the argument, Keith catches Hunk’s eye. Hunk raises his eyebrows and nods towards Lance in a way that says,  _ “Are you actually going to let him think you don’t love Star Wars?”  _ Keith flushes and regrets the conversation that he’d had with Hunk only days prior about this very subject, the only difference being that the argument was just between him, Hunk, and Shiro. Keith shrugs and looks away in embarrassment. 

 

Unknown to him, Pidge has noticed the entire silent conversation and has one of her own with Hunk while Lance and Keith are arguing about the coolness of Star Trek’s spaceships.

 

_ “What?”  _ Pidge’s face asks.

 

_ “Tell you later,”  _ is the response Hunk’s half-smile gives.

 

_ “Is it about them?”  _ Pidge gestures subtly towards the paladins still arguing obliviously across from them, to which Hunk only raises his eyebrows and smirks in response.

 

A minute later, Hunk and Pidge rejoin the argument, both with knowing grins on their faces.

 

The conversation continues for another half an hour or so, thankfully drifting to other series in the meantime. Keith was seriously going to cry if he’d had to hate on Star Wars much longer. Eventually, Shiro heads into the room with Allura and Coran close behind him.

 

“Are you all ready?” Shiro stops at the head of the table and looks around at the seated Paladins.

 

“Sure thing,” Hunk smiles and follows the three leaders back out of the room with Lance, Pidge, and Keith in tow.

 

“Ok team,” Shiro says once they’ve arrived in the training room. “I’ve discussed it with Allura and Coran, and we’ve agreed that today we will all focus on both long-range and short-range combat techniques.”

 

“What?!” Lance shrieks. “But-”

 

“No buts, Lance,” Allura says sternly. “We’ve all agreed that we can’t afford to have everyone trained in one type of combat and be incapable of succeeding with the other.”

 

Lance sighs, defeated, and gestures for Shiro to continue.

 

“I know you’re all better trained for whichever type of combat your bayard is best suited to,” Shiro softens his tone, “But we need to be prepared for the worst. Lotor isn’t going to pause a battle so that we can rotate who is where to better suit our talents.”

 

All the Paladins, including Keith, huff in a combination of half displeasure at having to train in a type of combat they aren’t used to or comfortable with and half acknowledgement because they know that Shiro, Allura, and Coran are right.

 

“So how do we do this?” Pidge asks.

 

“I’m glad you asked, number five!” Coran steps forward. “We’ve decided that the most efficient way to train you in the opposite form of combat, aside from just throwing you into battle of course, is to pair two Paladins up who have experience in different areas and go from there!”

 

“And,” Allura starts before anyone springs into action, “We’ve already decided on the pairings,” She smiles, oblivious to the defeated drop of everyone’s shoulders.

 

_ Please pair me up with Hunk, please pair me up with Hunk, please pair me up with Hunk _ , Keith tries to project his thoughts to Shiro through some kind of telepathy. Maybe his part-Galra brain can connect with Shiro’s arm? 

 

“But wait,” Hunk says, interrupting Keith’s silent pleading to Shiro. “There isn’t an even number of us.”

 

“I’ll be sitting out today,” Shiro says and, almost subconsciously, rubs his shoulder, where he had sustained a pretty bad injury during their last battle with Lotor and his generals. Shiro’s arm had been cut so deep you could see bone, and while the healing pod could fix a lot of things, apparently soreness wasn’t one of them. Everyone accepts that excuse without comment, knowing Shiro’s more than deserved his day of rest. 

 

“Shall we begin?” Allura asks after a moment of awkward silence where everyone was remembering Shiro’s injury in graphic detail.

 

Shiro takes a deep breath and nods while Keith starts up a different internal monologue slash hopefully-telepathically-communicating-with-Shiro chant.  _ Please don’t put me with Lance, please don’t put me with Lance, please please  _ please  _ don’t put me with Lance. _

 

“--will be Keith and Lance and then Hunk and Pidge. Pidge, I know your bayard is technically either long-range or short-range, so I figured that you could practice a bit of both,” Shiro continues, oblivious to the look of utter betrayal that Keith shoots him.

 

It’s not that Keith doesn’t  _ want  _ to work with Lance, per se, it’s just that things have been…. Strained between them recently. 

 

A month ago,  _ hell  _ even just a few weeks ago, things were great. He and Lance were getting along better than ever before and even hung out together a few times, just the two of them. But then-- then Keith had realized that these warm and tingly feelings that he had for Lance? The feelings that he thought were mild dislike and annoyance combined with reluctant fondness? Those only started to get worse, at which point Pidge confidently barged in on Keith in his room sometime in the middle of the night and informed Keith that he was in love with Lance.

 

Keith understandably, in his opinion, panicked. Which resulted in avoiding Lance, making this entire situation kind of his fault. Avoiding Lance then turned into Lance confronting him about why Keith was avoiding him. Which resulted in Keith panicking  _ again _ and shouting at Lance. Which resulted in an even worse dynamic between them that didn’t even compare to when they first formed Voltron. These days, they can barely go five minutes without yelling at each other for some stupid or petty reason.

 

Yeah, Keith will admit this is his fault.

 

He stops reminiscing, reminding himself to focus on training and hopefully not fight with Lance, and catches the tail end of Lance’s also betrayed look that he shot at Shiro. Keith resists the urge to groan.

 

“So, how are we supposed to do this?” Keith asks with enough bite in his tone that Hunk flinches slightly and gives Lance a worried glance.

 

“You will decide on a training regimen on your own,” Allura starts. “We trust you to take into account your partner’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as your own methods of combat, and use them to develop an effective training strategy. Provided there are no sudden attacks, we will be continuing with these exercises all week,” Allura pauses, waiting for everyone around her to nod. “You will also need to develop a training schedule between the two of you. The times and frequency of the exercises will be up to you.”

 

“I’ll be in the control room with Allura and Coran if anyone needs me,” Shiro says. He gives Hunk and Pidge a short wave and shoots a stern look at both Lance and Keith before continuing out the door. Allura follows, and then they’re alone with Hunk and Pidge.

 

“So, should we, like, work on the schedule altogether?” Hunk asks. “You know, so we don’t get in each other's way?” 

 

“Sure,” Keith shrugs. 

 

“Why don’t we each choose a day and time block and then go from there?” Pidge says, “We can take turns until all the days and slots are filled.”

 

Keith nods and takes a seat on the floor, the other three Paladins following him only seconds later. 

 

* * *

 

 

In the end, they decide that Keith and Lance will train Monday, Tuesday morning, Wednesday, Thursday afternoon, and Friday morning. Then they’ll train with all the paladins and the droids together on Saturday, so they can practice fighting against a larger group.

 

That being decided, the rest of the afternoon is spent coming up with their individual plans. Keith didn’t think this part would be very hard, honestly, but he clearly underestimated Lance’s ability to annoy him in any given situation. 

 

“Lance!” Keith growls after Lance’s third time singing “Under the Sea” from  _ the Little Mermaid _ .

 

“What?” Lance responds, seemingly oblivious to the fact that Keith can’t concentrate when he  _ won’t shut up _ .

 

“Shut the fuck up.”

 

“ _ You  _ shut the fuck up, mullet.” Lance glares.

 

“Guys,” Hunk sighs, “Can we  _ please _ not do this right now?”

 

“Sorry buddy, but Keith started it.”

 

“You were singing!” Keith snaps back.

 

“Oh, so you’re jealous of my singing skills?” Lance’s grin is practically the definition of smug. “I knew it! You’re just jealous of my amazing skills, aren’t you?”

 

“No,” Keith grits his teeth in frustration.

 

“Yeeeeeessss!”

 

“No, I’m really fucking not.”

 

“Yes, you really fucking are.”

 

“Guys!” Pidge interrupts them this time, “Both of you shut up.”

 

“He started it,” Both Lance and Keith mumble at the same time, but they reluctantly turn back to their individual plans in silence.

 

* * *

 

The next week is absolute hell. Absolute, total,  _ complete _ shit. 

 

Monday is Keith’s day to train Lance, and he can already tell it’s going to be a disaster. Two minutes in, and Keith has barely been able to speak a full sentence, let alone start training Lance.

 

“--So if you think for  _ one second  _ that you can beat me, mullet, you’ve got another thing coming. I refuse-- _ refuse! _ \--to leave here with you thinking--”

 

“Lance!” Keith shouts with a glare. “Can we please just start training? I’m really not in the mood to be lectured by Shiro because  _ you  _ won’t cooperate.”

 

Lance huffs and looks away from Keith, frowning at the opposite wall with his lips pursed. Keith simply watches him pout for a moment. He’s definitely  _ not  _ admiring Lance’s bone structure and the slope of his nose and-- _ no,stop that.  _ He flushes, grateful that Lance is still looking at the wall, and drops his head to stare at his own shoes.

 

“Fine,” Lance finally says as he turns back to Keith, who looks up. Lance isn’t pouting anymore, but Keith is having trouble identifying the expression on his face. Keith had thought he would be able to recognize all of Lance’s many facial ticks and their meanings by now, but he has absolutely no clue what Lance’s face is doing right now. Lance’s face is almost carefully blank, his mouth in a straight line and eyes without their usual glint. It’s almost a mix of his  _ I’m disappointed  _ and  _ My feelings are hurt and I’m trying not to show it  _ expressions, but Keith can also see a hint of his  _ Hate Keith  _ and  _ Battle Mode  _ faces thrown in as well. It’s weird, Keith thinks, to see Lance without a hint of expression at all, his usual easy-to-read ticks nowhere to be found and instead replaced with this strange mask.

 

“Well,” Keith clears his throat, “I was thinking maybe we could start with some hand-to-hand combat, see where you need work, then go from there.”

 

“Okay,” Lance says, almost without inflection, and Keith is suddenly struck with the inexplicable urge to ask him what’s wrong. But Lance is already heading towards the center of the room and taking up a--totally incorrect--battle stance, so he decides that asking Lance what happened can wait until later.

 

The training itself goes surprisingly well after that. Lance doesn’t argue against Keith’s direction and Keith finds that Lance is an incredibly fast learner when he’s actually trying. By the end of the day, it even takes Keith ten minutes to beat Lance, which is a vast improvement from the solid forty-five seconds it took in the morning.

 

So, it should have been fine. It  _ is  _ fine, Keith tells himself. Lance was just… focusing. Lance was focusing and  _ that _ was why he barely talked, why he didn’t taunt or smirk at Keith once, why he didn’t brag about his skills, and why he didn’t say anything to Keith when they were done and instead gave him a slight nod before leaving the room.

 

Keith’s going to bring it up. Really! It’s just that the next morning Lance walks into the room and is back to his normal, obnoxious self. So Keith drops it. 

 

That day, Lance starts to teach Keith the finer aspects of using a long-range weapon. He teaches Keith breathing techniques, helps him decide which eye is his dominant, and shows him the correct way to aim. By that afternoon, Keith is marginally surprised at how fast he’s managed to pick up on how to use Lance’s bayard. While he’ll definitely admit--to himself, at least--that he isn’t picking up on it nearly as fast as Lance had picked up on hand-to-hand combat, he’s learning a lot more than he ever had during his time at the Garrison. He now manages to hit the target nearly every time, even though he has yet to hit the center. 

 

There was no resurgence of Lance’s weird behavior from Monday, and the day is spent with Lance mocking him before suddenly turning serious and being incredibly patient. He also, of course, makes time to boast about his own skills and shows off. 

 

The rest of the week continues much the same way; Lance is his usual self, Keith snaps at him in response, they fight, but somehow they manage to work through it and continue training. After the group demonstration on Friday, even Shiro and Allura are impressed with how much Lance and Keith have improved.

 

“I knew you’d make a great pair!” is Coran’s response to their demonstration.

 

“Good job, Paladins!” Allura says with a grin.

 

Shiro smiles softly and says, “Good job, guys.”

 

All in all, Keith thinks that the week has gone fairly well. Certainly better than he’d expected. Maybe he and Lance have finally moved past this weird funk they’ve been in for the past month.

 

Then Lance starts acting the same way Keith himself had been before they’d spent a week training together. He avoids Keith whenever possible, mocks him whenever they’re in the same room together for more than five minutes, and glares at him whenever he enters a room.

 

Keith lasts about five days. Then, he loses it.

 

“Is this some kind of payback?” Keith demands, resisting the urge to grin when Lance and Hunk flinch at his unexpected arrival in the common room. 

 

“Keith?” Hunk asks, looking nervously between Lance and Keith as if expecting a sudden explosion. 

 

Admittedly, he’s probably not far off.

 

“What the hell are you talking about?” Lance asks, his  _ Hate Keith _ face now proudly on display, having replaced the  _ Friendly Bonding  _ expression he’d been wearing seconds prior.

 

“You heard me,” Keith growls, coming to a stop before Lance, who had stood up from the floor while Keith was gaining on him. Hunk reluctantly stands as well and places himself slightly between the Red and Blue Paladins.

 

“Payback for what?” Lance asks with a sharp grin. “Are you going to finally admit that you,  _ all of a sudden _ , ignored me again?”

 

“I--”

 

“You know what, Keith,” Lance grabs Hunk’s wrist and starts to drag him out the door. “Let’s just work together when we have to, and we can ignore each other when we don’t. Sound good?”

 

“Sounds great,” Keith spits, ignoring the way his heart clenches at Lance’s words.

 

As Hunk and Lance leave the room, he hears Hunk say, “That seemed a little harsh, man.” He doesn’t hear Lance’s response.

 

* * *

 

 

This is Keith’s fault. He  _ knows  _ it is. After all, he’s the one that started ignoring Lance again after he’d realized how he felt about the Blue Paladin. He’s the one who decided it was better to stay as distant from Lance as possible. He’s the one who can’t get close to people without hurting them.

 

So, yeah, this is Keith’s fault, and he’s not afraid to beat himself up for it. The thing is, Keith hadn’t realized how  _ lonely  _ it is without Lance hanging around, taunting, mocking, and training with Keith. And now that Keith isn’t the one who’s making it their mission to ignore the other, he realizes how shitty it feels.

 

He’s lonely.

 

He’s on a castle ship with people that he spends days on end with, and he’s  _ lonely _ .

 

The problem is that he doesn’t know if he can fix it. He’s not sure he even knows where to begin. Had this been a problem with anyone else, Keith would have definitely gone to Shiro for advice. But this time he doesn’t want to admit that it was his fault and that he’s probably deeper into this ‘feelings for Lance’ thing than he had originally thought.

 

So he decides to leave it. What’s a little loneliness in the grand scheme of things, anyway?

  
  
  
  
  



	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is a very short chapter to tide you over before the next **BIG** update, which will be coming soon!
> 
> This is the last chapter of setting up the main storyline, which will ramp up in chapter three (which is also when a certain baby will finally make an appearance!)
> 
> Thanks so much for reading, and enjoy!
> 
> WARNING: Please note that this chapter contains talk of death, though it is nothing especially graphic or violent.

“All Paladins please report to the main deck immediately,” Allura’s voice rang out through Keith’s room just as he was throwing on his jacket. He could tell from Allura’s tone that there was no imminent threat to Voltron--she probably wouldn’t have even bothered with an announcement before sounding the alarm if that were the case--but he could tell that she was concerned about whatever had come up.

 

Not wanting to anger her by stalling, Keith quickly steps into his boots and starts a fast pace down the hallway. Hunk happens to be exiting his room just as Keith passed it, so they continued the walk to the main deck together.

 

“Do you think something’s wrong?” Hunk asks as the two of them continue to walk briskly towards the main deck.

 

“Probably nothing major,” Keith replies honestly; if it were major they’d be heading straight to their lions--not to the deck.

 

“Is anything not major when it comes to Voltron?” Hunk asks curiously, and Keith honestly can’t tell if Hunk meant for it to be a joke or not, so he settles for huffing a laugh and shrugs in response. 

 

They remain in a comfortable silence during the rest of the short jog to the main deck, where Keith is immediately assaulted with four other voices as he steps into the room after Hunk.

 

“I’m just saying,” Pidge is gesturing wildly from her designated seat, “Diplomacy is not exactly our strong suit.”

 

“Whether that is true or not,” Allura replies, “We have to go to Gorzon, there is no other option.”

 

“But--”

 

“Hunk! Keith!” Allura interrupts Pidge’s protests to address the new members of the room, “Did you happen to run into Lance on your way up?”

 

Hunk shakes his head no as Keith shrugs and turns away to look out the giant windows, taking a moment to steady himself from the expected, but unwelcome, stab of… something, that comes from hearing Lance’s name.

 

“I’m here!” The man in question yells as he dramatically--because it’s Lance--throws open the doors and charges into the room, his blue robe flapping behind him like a cape. “Sorry!”

 

Allura spares a brief smile at Lance before addressing the three newcomers, “Hunk, Keith, Lance, I have briefly gone over the situation with Pidge and Shiro, but we have a  _ very  _ important task.”

 

“Aren’t all of our tasks important?” Lance asks with only a hit of his usual bravado.

 

“That’s what I said!” Hunk replies and Lance grins wildly at him, sticking his hand out for a fistbump which Hunk gladly returns.

 

“Hunk, Lance, please focus. This is incredibly important.” Allura interrupts with a slight huff which Shiro follows up with a disapproving glance. 

 

Hunk and Lance both wince in apology and return their attention to Allura. “Sorry Princess,” Lance smiles.

 

“As I was saying,” Allura continues, “We have a situation on Gorzon.”

 

“What kind of situation?” Keith asks hesitantly, suspicious of the way Allura seems to be drawing out explaining whatever new mission Voltron has.

 

“Erm, well, to put it lightly, the planet is dying.”

 

“Dying? Like… how, exactly?” Hunk asks.

 

“Well,” Coran interrupts in a tone that is probably far too enthusiastic for the news he delivers, “We expect the planet will die by collapsing in on itself, followed by a gigantic fiery explosion!”

 

“Don’t planets die, like, all the time though?” Lance cocks his head, and Keith  _ hates _ that tick of his, because it always manages to distract him from the situation at hand.

 

“Yes,” Allura confirms, “But the problem with this particular planet is that the inhabitants refuse to leave. You see, Gorzon is one of only three easily accessible planets that grows an extremely rare gemstone called Rubquoian. Gorzon is  _ also  _ the last of these planets not to be infiltrated by the Galra, and remains the last source of Rubquoian for the portion of the planets that are not Galra-controlled or inhabited. Rubquoian, the gem in question, is similar in looks to Earth’s amethysts, but three hundred fifty times more rare--at least from the last of our Altean data; ten-thousand years later it may be much,  _ much, _ rarer. The Gorzonian people know the value of the stone, which plays heavily into the mythology of their culture.”

 

“No offence,” Pidge interrupts, “But how, exactly, are we supposed to help them? We can’t  _ force  _ an entire planet-full of civilians to leave.”

 

“We can’t just let them die!” Lance shrieks.

 

“That’s not what I’m saying!” Pidge throws her hands in the air and gestures wildly. “I just-- it doesn’t seem like there’s anything we could do, you know?”

 

“Let’s let the Princess finish speaking before we make any decisions,” Shiro cuts in and gestures for Allura to continue speaking.

 

“Yes, as Lance said, we cannot just let an entire civilization die,” Allura swallows in what Keith assumes is grief for her own lost civilization, and continues after taking a deep breath. “I have talked to the leaders of the Gorzonian people, and they have agreed to allow us to join in on one of their most important festivals. You must understand, Paladins, that this is extremely,  _ extremely _ rare; never once in my entire life have I heard of the Gorzonians allowing outsiders to observe, let alone attend, one of their festivals.”

 

“Neither have I,” Coran interjects to add weight to Allura’s statement. “The Gorzonians are notoriously private, and rarely even let outsiders enter their airspace.”

 

“Ok,” Keith says, “So what is the plan exactly? Go to the festival and then do what?”   
  


“At the festival we must do our best to gain the trust of the Gorzonian people. If we can achieve that, then we might be able to convince the people to let us help them mine what is left of the Rubquoian, at which point the Gorzonians might consider relocating to a safer planet.”

 

“Doesn’t that seem, I don’t know, really far-fetched, though?” Hunk asks, his forehead wrinkled in concern and eyes distant as he thinks through the plan.

 

“The planet will remain stable for at least one more of your Earth-months, so we will be in no danger of Gorzon combusting in on itself before we attend the festival and talk with the Gorzonians,” Coran assures.

 

“It’s the only chance we have to save an entire civilization,” Allura’s resolve hardens, “We are doing it.”

 

“Not that I don’t agree with you, Princess, but Pidge had a point earlier,” Shiro cautiously steps forward. “Aside from you and Coran, we aren’t the most experienced diplomats.”

 

“I realize that,” Allura replies, allowing the first bit of worry to show through her tone, “But we do not have another choice. We will have to do our best, and hope that is enough.”

 

“The ship is already en-route to Gorzon,” Coran steps closer to Allura and places a comforting hand on her shoulder, “We should be arriving in about four of your Earth-days.”

 

“In the meantime, please read the guides to diplomacy that Pidge has translated from the original Altean texts. Paladins, this is extremely important, and we need to be ready.”

 

“Of course,” Shiro smiles. “We’ll be as ready as we can be.”

 

“Agreed,” Pidge, Hunk, and Lance say at the same time, while Keith only gives a nod in response.

 

“Excellent,” responds Allura.

  
  


\-----------

  
  


**APPROX. 73 HOURS UNTIL ARRIVAL ON GORZON**

  
  


“Do you think we can really do it?” Pidge asks from her spot seated on Keith’s desk.

 

“Do you want me to be honest?” Keith responds from where he’s sat up in bed reading the diplomatic handbook that Pidge had translated. At Pidge’s immediate glare and eyeroll he sighs, “I don’t know.”

 

“An entire planet of people could die if we don’t,” Pidge says, and the defeated tone of her voice makes Keith’s worries skyrocket even higher than they already were.

 

“Yeah,” Keith says. “We’ll just have to make sure we convince them.”

 

“Yeah,” Pidge replies, and Keith pretends not to hear the uncertainty in her voices that matches the uncertainty in his own.

  
  


\-----------

  
  


**APPROX. 22 HOURS UNTIL ARRIVAL ON GORZON**

  
  


Keith stands frozen outside the sliding door to the dining room, listening to Lance and Hunk converse inside the room.

 

“Hunk,” Lance anxiously paces back and forth in front of the door, which means that Keith is barely able to see him through the crack of the door.

 

“Yeah, buddy?” Hunk replies.

 

“If we can’t do this th-then an entire  _ planet  _ full of people will die. There will be so many families, children…”

 

There’s a pause where Lance stops pacing, and Keith thinks that Hunk is probably seated at the table and trying to form some sort of response.

 

“Yeah, they will.” Is Hunk’s final response, and Keith’s heart stutters. If Hunk, who is usually one of the most positive members of the team and  _ always _ the one to calm Lance down, has no reassuring words or optimistic thoughts on their upcoming mission, than Keith knows that this means none of them have any faith that this will work.

 

Which means thousands,  _ millions _ , maybe, of deaths will be on Voltron’s hands.

 

Keith isn’t sure if any of them, himself included, will be able to handle that.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the name of the gem, I combined "Ruby" and "Turquoise" to get Rubquoian, because the (fictional) gem in this fic is purple... and red and blue make purple ;) (suuuuper subtle klance reference there, huh?)
> 
> For your reference, [this](https://geology.com/gemstones/amethyst/banding-in-amethyst.jpg) is what I imagined the gemstone Rubquoian to look like!
> 
>  

**Author's Note:**

> Come scream about these idiots with me on Tumblr [@keihtkogane!](http://www.keihtkogane.tumblr.com)
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this chapter!


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